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i need a bit of help!!! most of my fish in my tank are doing some sort of flicking on the substrate of mt tank!!! what do you think this is??? someone has told me STERAZIN will do the trick is this true or not???? as someone has told me its nothing to worry about as it all it is an itch???? an they are scratching themselves is this true as i dont think so???? plz help me as im a bit concerned???????? ashley seagrim

1 oscar 1 c,a,e 2 plecos
48" x 24" x 18" filtration= 1 fluva2+ 1 fluval 3 and a aqua pro 3 heating= 2 300w superfish heater with thermo

Hi Ashely, Welcome to FP

As we discussed in chat, it would be really helpful if you could provide some more information about the tank, water quality etc. This thread will give you an idea of the information required

If you don't have test kits yourself to be able to get water quality parameters, take a sample of water to your LFS, ask them to test it for you and write down the results. Most LFS will do it for a small fee (or free if you're lucky). It is important to get the actual values of the test results rather than just "OK" or "normal" or "a little high".

Try to get back to us as soon as possible with more details so that information provided to assist you can be as informed and accurate as possible.

G_T

P.S. Can one of the mods please move this to the hospital?

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.

Listen to G_T, he's the man. We really need to know the basics to help you solve this problem... what types of fish? tank size? type of gravel/substrate? etc. Good luck

Fish will occasionally flick themselves against substrate or tank ornaments as they have an itch, and is not to be worried about.

However, if you're saying that all of your fish are 'itching' themsleves and are doing it often, this would suggest that there is something wrong. This may be a parasite or some kind of disease causing the trouble. If this is true, please post your water parameters and look for any other symptoms (do your fish look any different? colouration? markings? etc etc) and let us know.

Other than doing as instructed by GT I suggest you read then print out all the info on WS Ich just in case it is.
At the moment I would tread with Melafix to help relieve any stress on the fish.

All the tank info is extremely important to be able to give you an accurate cause of your problem.

WHITE SPOT ICH

“White-spot” Parasite, Ichthyophthirius multifiliis

This disease is easy to recognise, as the skin of the infected fish becomes covered with white spots, each the size of a pinhead. Each spot represents the site of one, or sometimes two, parasites. All parts of the body gills, may be attacked.

The causative agent is named Ichthyophthirius multifiliis. It is a spherical and large by protozoan standards, measuring up to 1mm in diameter. Short, hair-like processes known as cilia are spread densely over the surface. A horseshoe-shape nucleus is also present which is clearly visible under the microscope.

By the means of the cilia the parasite rotates vigorously and burrows into the surface layer (epidermis) of its host. It feeds on skin cells and surface debris. The burrowing action causes a local irritation and the epidermis grows across the parasite to enclose it, thus forming a “White Spot”

Reproduction occurs away from the host. After maturing in the skin, which takes a few days to three weeks, depending on the temperature, the parasite bores out, swims away and comes to rest on a submerged object such as a stone, or plant. Here it forms a jelly-like cyst within which a series of rapid cell divisions take place. In a few hours, several hundred daughter cells or swarmers, are produced, which break out of the cyst to find a new host. Alighting on the skin, they burrow in to recommence the life cycle. If they fail to find a host within three to four days, they perish.

Symptoms
If the protozoan is introduced into a tank containing healthy fish, little harm may occur, other than a fleeting infection with a few parasites. If however, the fishes are already weakened for some other reason, e.g. lack of oxygen, the parasite will quickly cover the whole body surface, causing irritation and opening up wounds for secondary infections. The host mobility may become affected. In sever cases, death may result.

Prevention
If white-spot appears in an otherwise healthy tank, the parasite “must” have been introduced either as an adult on a newly acquired fish, or as the cyst form on, for example new stones, a plant or even added water. The only certain method of prevention, is to quarantine all new stock, including stones, plants etc; preferably in water at a temperature of 77F. Allow one week’s quarantine.

Treatments
There are too many treatments today to recommend any specific one. Many can be bought easily at aquarium outlets.


Several very interesting points to think about.

Very easy to recognise.
Its reproduction cycle.
No host they will die.
If introduced into a healthy tank little harm may occur.
Pay attention to all tank details.
Weakened fish, and lack of oxygen can/may and will cause sever deaths. All this is usually caused by poor tank maintenance and/or incorrect and faulty equipment.
Prevention is the best cure
A Parasite “must” be introduced into the tank.

This information was collected from Fresh Water Tropical Fish

***********************************************************************************
Calilasseia
POSTED BY Calilasseia

Posted 24-Nov-2006 01:48
The key facts to remember about White Spot (and I'm sure Keith has covered these, but I'll repeat them just in case) are:[1] Only one part of the life cycle of Ichthyophthirius multifiliis, the causative parasite, is susceptible to medication, which means that ...[2] Medication has to be applied even when the symptoms appear to have gone for up to 7 days afterwards, to make sure that all the susceptible stages of the parasite have been eliminated. The parasite in question has a three stage life cycle. The part that manifests itself is the trophont or feeding stage. This stage burrows through the fish's slime coat, attaches itself to the outer layer of tissue or epithelium, and starts feeding upon the fish. This stage is impervious to medication because it forms a protective cyst around itself. The next stage is the tomont stage. This forms when the parasite has ingested sufficient nutrients from the fish to begin reproduction. This stage is largely invisible in the aquarium, because it detaches from the fish, falls into the substrate, and remains encysted while it divides into daughter cells - something like 1,000 daughter cells for each tomont. Because it is encysted, it is impervious to medication again. The third stage is the larval or tomite stage. Each daughter cell becomes a free swimming tomite, which is microscopic and invisible to the eye. At this point in the life cycle, the parasite is vulnerable to medication. The trouble is, of course, that the swarming tomites are microscopic, and so you can't actually see them directly with the naked eye, which means you have to keep medication levels in the aquarium maintained at sufficient concentration to kill the tomites for as long as they are likely to persist. Depending upon temperature, the tomites could mutate into mature trophonts in as little as 3 days or take as long as 7 days. In an aquarium that contains solely Labyrinth Fishes, one means of dealing with the parasite is to increase the ambient aquarium temperature to 85 degrees Fahrenheit during the medication stage. This speeds up the parasite's life cycle, and ensures that the medication can destroy all the free-swimming microscopic tomites before they have a chance to attach themselves to a fish and begin the cycle anew. With NON Labyrinth Fishes, however, this could induce unwanted additional respiratory stresses - Labyrinth Fishes can cope with this because they are able to breathe atmospheric air to compensate for the lower concentration of dissolved oxygen at higher water temperatures, but fishes that rely exclusively upon gill-based respiration cannot do this. Some fishes such as Clown Loaches can be subjected to elevated temperatures as they experience these in the wild periodically, but it's not a good idea to do this with certain other fishes - Panda Corys spring to mind as one species that should NOT be subject to temperatures above 80 degrees F because they're inhabitants of cooler waters in their native Peru, and will die of heat stress if 'cooked' in this manner. So, depending upon ambient temperature, the tomites will appear in as little as 3 days, or you could be unfortunate and the tomites could take 7 days to appear. In cooler aquaria (e.g., a Panda Cory aquarium kept at 72 degrees F) you could be required to maintain medication for up to 14 days. If the fishes can be moved to a hospital tank for treatment, and medicated there, this is preferable because you don't have to subject your main aquarium's biological filter to adverse effects from the medication - you can just destroy the parasites there. Removing the fishes from the main aquarium also has the advantage that any free swimming tomites that arise in the main aquarium are left with no hosts to attach to, and thus starve to death. So, at the end of your medication period in the hospital aquarium, you are free to return the fishes to the main aquarium. Of course, your problem here is that you have to remember to add a small quantity of fish food to the main aquarium as if you were still feeding fishes so that the biological filter in the main aquarium is kept ticking over whilst the fishes themselves are temporarily rehoused. Once the fishes have been removed from the main aquarium, by the way, you can speed things up vis-a-vis destroying remaining parasites by increasing the temperature to 105 degrees F while the fishes are absent, which will speed up the life cycle considerably, and result in the accelerated production of tomites ... which then find themselves bereft of fishes to attach to. And, they starve to death quicker at the higher temperatures, because they use up their reserves more quickly. Get yourself a cheap plastic aquarium that you're never going to use as anything BUT a hospital tank, put your fishes in that, medicate them, then whack up the main aquarium temperature to 105 degrees while the fishes are in the 'hospital'. Once the fishes are free of parasites and have remained so for 7 days, you can return the main aquarium to its normal temperature and reintroduce the now treated fishes. Any watertight container that is safe to house fishes in (i.e., it hasn't ever been used to mix weedkiller or insecticide, and doesn't leach toxic material into the water) can be pressed into service as the 'hospital' for the duration, so long as it is possible to maintain aeration and some basic filtration (e.g., sponge filter) within the container during the medication phase. Oh, and DO NOT use activated carbon filtration or ion exchange resins in the hospital aquarium because that will remove your medication! EDIT : Almost forgot. I use Protozin. Protozin is somewhat expensive, but it is claimed by the makers to be formulated so as to impact as little as possible upon filter bacteria. And, upon the occasions I have had to use it, it works well


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well thank you ppl its been a great help thank you all!!!!

1 oscar 1 c,a,e 2 plecos
48" x 24" x 18" filtration= 1 fluva2+ 1 fluval 3 and a aqua pro 3 heating= 2 300w superfish heater with thermo

stock in my tank is as follow=
1 albino shark, 2 red tailed blk sharks, 2 chinese algae eaters, 2 pleco, 4 dwarf neon rainbowfish, 8 zebra danios, 24 golden danios, 2 platys, 25 platy fry, 4 guppys, 18 guppy fry, 5 w,c,m,minnow, 1 mollie. my tank is 47" x 24" x 18" i think there is more fish but i will let you know ok??? thank you

1 oscar 1 c,a,e 2 plecos
48" x 24" x 18" filtration= 1 fluva2+ 1 fluval 3 and a aqua pro 3 heating= 2 300w superfish heater with thermo

2 red tailed blk sharks, 2 chinese algae eaters, 2 pleco,

This part of your fish stock concerns me.

2 RTBS can be a problem yet I had 3 in a 5ft tank at one stage one will finally take over and become extremely aggressive towards the other RTBS.

2 CAE more trouble than they are worth much has been posted about them on FP. They can be extremely aggressive as they get bigger including taking pieces out of other fish. SAEs are a far better choice.

2 Pleco ???? what species/variety to start of with as some can get huge and way to big for your tank.

With all those live bearers you are heading for a very big over population very soon

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info

Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
VOTE NOW VOTE NOW

cheers keithgh the plecs are just common plecs i think they aint that big the biggest mate is bout 4"<<<inch??? thanks anyway for the feed bk mate its appreciated

1 oscar 1 c,a,e 2 plecos
48" x 24" x 18" filtration= 1 fluva2+ 1 fluval 3 and a aqua pro 3 heating= 2 300w superfish heater with thermo

HI

Dont have much to add to this but I can say that I have read the common plecos grow to around 20 - 30 inches so having two in one 55 gallon tank may not be enough room with all the other fish you have in there.

Tigermom